The history of British rock 'n' roll of the 1960's is filled with the names of homegrown performers who, despite enjoying the favor of critics, music columnists, and club audiences, never managed to make a permanent mark on the record charts. Alan Bown was a case-in-point, a trumpet player who organized a series of bands — principally known as the Alan Bown Set — in the 1960's who got good reviews and attracted healthy live audiences, but which were never able to successfully transfer their club sound onto vinyl. Bown didn't start pursuing a professional music career until after having served a hitch in the Royal Air Force — he organized his first band soon after returning to civilian life in the early 1960's. At the time, there were several different types of music competing for ... Read More...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Alan Bown Set - Emergency 999 (1965-67)
The history of British rock 'n' roll of the 1960's is filled with the names of homegrown performers who, despite enjoying the favor of critics, music columnists, and club audiences, never managed to make a permanent mark on the record charts. Alan Bown was a case-in-point, a trumpet player who organized a series of bands — principally known as the Alan Bown Set — in the 1960's who got good reviews and attracted healthy live audiences, but which were never able to successfully transfer their club sound onto vinyl. Bown didn't start pursuing a professional music career until after having served a hitch in the Royal Air Force — he organized his first band soon after returning to civilian life in the early 1960's. At the time, there were several different types of music competing for ... Read More...
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The Critters - Younger Girl (1966)
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Wimple Winch - Tales From The Sinking Ship (1964-68)
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Rattles - Hot Wheels (1988) Germany
02. Welcome Home - 3:22
03. Be Good To Me - 3:49
04. Johnny-Johnny (Take Me Home) - 3:00
05. Kingdom Of Love - 3:53
06. Let's Act Together - 3:26
07. C'mon And Sing (Version '88) - 3:35
08. Hot Wheels - 3:38
09. What A Night - 2:44
10. Little Miss Wunderbar - 3:36
11. Angel - 3:19
12. Russian Roulette & American Poker - 4:27
*****
- Achim Reichel - vocals, guitar
- Herbert Hildebrandt - bass, vocals
- Henner Hoier - keyboards, vocals
- Reinhard "Dicky" Tarrach - drums
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The Archies - This Is Love (1971)
This Is Love, The Archies sixth album for Kirshner, was released in 1971, and was their last original album. It was produced by Ron Dante and Ritchie Adams instead of Jeff Barry, who produced all their other albums. The album contained all new material; nothing from the "Archie's Funhouse" series. At this point, it was safe to say that the group had made a final departure from their TV series alter-ego. In fact, the 1971 TV series "Archie's TV Funnies," contained no musical segments or mention of the musical group.
This album is considered "quite rare." Many Archies fans, including myself" were not aware of it's existance until the internet became popular. Finding a copy of this album is next to impossible. The album even eluded the Billboard album charts; to my knowledge, it did not chart at alThe single Together We Two, backed by Everything's Alright, from the Jingle Jangle album, was released to coincide with the release of the Greatest Hits album. It was later included on the This Is Love album, so one can say that it was the initial single release from the album. It was the lone Jeff Barry produced track on the album. The single peaked on the charts at #122.
The title track, This Is Love, backed by Throw A Little Love My Way, was released as a single to coincide with the release of the album. To my knowledge, the single did not chart at all. Two more tracks from the album appeared as "B" sides to future singles. Maybe I'm Wrong was the flip side to A Summer Prayer For Peace, and Hold On To Lovin' was the flip side to Love Is Living In You. Both singles were released in 1971. Neither single made the U.S. Billboard charts.
http://www.geocities.com/windsor_bear/archies/kes110.html
*****
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The Archies - Sushine (1970)
While the Kirshner logo was featured on the cover, albums were pressed with both the orange Kirshner and Calendar labels. One can only assume that RCA wanted to use up its left-over stock of Calendar labels. The Calendar label appeared mostly on the thinner flexible LPs, while the Kirshner label appeared on the thicker, more ridgid LPs.
The back cover did not include any promotional compositions describing the group or the album content as did the three previous albums. Instead, it showed miniature album covers of the three previous albums that were still available, including the new cover art for the Sugar, Sugar album, previously titled Everything's Archie. The album peaked on the Billboard album charts at #137. While still impressive for a studio group, it was their lowest charted album yet.
Curiously, the album did not include their previous single, Who's Your Baby?, which had been released after the release of the Jingle Jangle album. This single would not be available on an album until their next release, Greatest Hits.
Sunshine was the initial single release from the album, backed by Over And Over. The song was promoted heavily on the show "Archie's Funhouse", appearing in at least four episodes. The song was slightly edited for the 45 release, and was edited further for the show. The single peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 during it's 7 week stay.
Another song from the album, A Summer Prayer For Peace, was released in the U.S. later in 1971 after becoming a big #1 smash hit in South Africa. The song, both beautiful and haunting, unfortunately did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It was backed by Maybe I'm Wrong, a song from their later This Is Love LP.
Songs on this album included: Sunshine, Who's Gonna Love Me, Mr. Factory, Love And Rock 'n Roll Music, Over And Over, Waldo P. Emerson Jones, A Summer Prayer For Peace, Dance, Comes The Sun, Suddenly Susan, One Big Family and It's The Summertime. Songs colored red were featured on the show "Archie's Funhouse." The others were not featured at all. Most fans agree that Comes The Sun would have been a Top 40 giant if released as a single.
02 - Who's Gonna Love Me
03 - Mr. Factory
04 - Love And Rock'n Roll Music
05 - Over And Over
06 - Waldo P. Emerson Jones
07 - A Summer Prayer For Peace
08 - Dance
09 - Comes The Sun
10 - Suddenly Susan
11 - One Big Family
12 - It's The Summertime
*****
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The Archies - Jingle Jangle (1969)
It's safe to say that this was The Archies last album featuring their "original" style of upbeat and fun music. Starting with their next album, Sunshine, The Archies took on a more "mature" approach and sound. But for this album, it was pure fun and frolic.
Although the album produced a Top 10 single, the album itself did not fare as well on the charts, reaching #125 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart.
For the Australian release, the title was changed to Get On The Line, which was the first track of Side 2 of the album in the US.
Jingle Jangle was the lone hit single released from this album, backed by Justine. It hit #10 on the Billboard charts, stayed in the Top 40 for 10 weeks and in the Hot 100 for 13 weeks. It became The Archies' second gold single.
Two other songs from this album were "B" sides to other singles. Senorita Rita was the back to Who's Your Baby?, which was released shortly after the release of this album; and Everything's Alright was the back to Together We Two. Other songs, such as Get On The Line and Nursery Rhyme, would have been great Top 40 contenders if released.
Songs on this album included Jingle Jangle, Everything's Alright, She's Putting Me Thru Changes, Justine, Whoopee Tie Ai A, Nursery Rhyme, Get On The Line, You Know I Love You, Senorita Rita, Look Before You Leap, Sugar And Spice and Archie's Party.
All songs from this album were featured on "The Archie Comedy Hour" with the exception of Justine. I don't remember that one being performed.
01 - Jingle Jangle
02 - Everything's Alright
03 - She's Putting Me Thru Changes
04 - Justine
05 - Whoopee Tie Ai A
06 - Nursey Rhyme
07 - Get On The Line
08 - You know I Love You
09 - Senorita Rita
10 - Look Before You Leap
11 - Sugar And Spice
12 - Archie's Party
******
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The Archies - Sugar Sugar (1969)
Sometime during the release of this album, Calendar Records changed its name to Kirshner Records. There are two versions of the cover, one with the Calendar logo, and another with the Kirshner logo. To the best of my knowledge, the Calendar logo was used on all of the orange record labels for the album.
The album peaked at #66 on the Billboard charts in 1969.
About half of the songs on this album were featured on "The Archie Show." The other half were featured on "The Archie Comedy Hour." Unless I'm severely mistaken, Feelin So Good was not featured on either show.
Feelin So Good was the first single from the album, backed by Love Light. While it did make the Billboard charts, it did not crack into the Top 40. The second single, Sugar, Sugar, backed by Melody Hill, hit #1 on the Billboard charts for a total of 4 weeks, and stayed in the Top 40 for 18 weeks. It became The Archies first gold single.
Songs on this album included Feelin' So Good, Melody Hill, Rock & Roll Music, Kissin', Don't Touch My Guitar, Circle of Blue, Sugar, Sugar, You Little Angel, You, Bicycles, Roller Skates and You, Hot Dog, Inside Out-Upside Down, and Love Light.
After the tremendous success of the Sugar, Sugar single, the name of the album was changed for later repressings to Sugar, Sugar. A blurb at the bottom of the new revised cover states "formerly available as EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE." The picture to the left is a black & white representation of what the cover looks like. In over 35 years of hunting for this album cover, I have never been able to find it, nor have I found anyone else who has ever seen it. Read further down about an update about this missing cover.
The album, Sugar, Sugar, was released in other countries, but with different covers. In Germany, Sugar, Sugar was released with a scantily clad female on the front cover. In England, Sugar, Sugar was released with a picture of sugar cubes inside of a sugar bowl. Most other countries used the artwork from the Everything's Archie album, or the artwork from the first The Archies album for their release of Sugar, Sugar.
Overall, Everything's Archie / Sugar, Sugar is probably the group's most popular album. It appears more frequently in used record houses and thrift stores than any of their other albums.
(http://www.geocities.com/windsor_bear/archies/kes103.html )
02 - Melody Hill
03 - Rock & Roll Music
04 - Kissin'
05 - Don't Touch My Guitar
06 - Circle Of Blue
07 - Sugar Sugar
08 - You Little Angel You
09 - Bicycles, Roller Skates And You
10 - Hot Dogs
11 - Inside Out Upside Down
12 - Love Light
*****
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Archies - The Archies (1968)
Most '60s bubblegum groups were faceless studio concoctions, made up of hired professionals and given nominal group identities after the fact. The Archies made no pretense of being a real band in the first place — their music, including the smash hit "Sugar, Sugar," was "performed" by the animated TV cartoon characters spun off from Archie comics. In reality, of course, they were a studio concoction made up of hired professionals (most notably lead singer Ron Dante), but in this case, they weren't technically faceless.
The Archies were created by promoter Don Kirshner, who was coming off of a major success as the creator of the Monkees. In late 1967, Kirshner was hired as music supervisor for CBS' new Saturday morning cartoon The Archie Show, which was to feature a new original song every week. He immediately brought on producer Jeff Barry, who with Ellie Greenwich had formed one of the pre-eminent songwriting teams of the girl-group era (Greenwich also sang on several Archies records). Kirshner's original choice for lead singer was Kenny Karen, but Barry brought in Ron Dante, an experienced session singer who'd fronted the Detergents' novelty parody "Leader of the Laundromat"; Dante had met Barry at a Neil Diamond session, and had previously cut promos for Kirshner. Dante won the job, and Barry hired Jeannie Thomas as the group's female vocalist. When the TV show debuted, it was a hit, and the first Archies single, "Bang Shang-a-Lang," nearly made the Top 20 in late 1968.
Shortly thereafter, Barry hired songwriter/backing vocalist Andy Kim, and replaced Thomas with Toni Wine. Barry and Kim co-wrote "Sugar, Sugar," which became a breakout smash in 1969; it topped the charts for four weeks, sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone, and wound up as Billboard's number one song of the year. Meanwhile, the TV show was expanded to a full hour, and Dante enjoyed a simultaneous Top Ten hit during "Sugar, Sugar"'s run, thanks to his lead vocal on the Cufflinks' "Tracy." The follow-up, "Jingle Jangle," reached the Top Ten, but from there the Archies' chart success tailed off quickly. Their last Top 40 hit came in the spring of 1970 with "Who's Your Baby?"; the same year, Donna Marie replaced Toni Wine. However, by the end of 1970, Barry left the Archies to pursue other projects, and stories detailing the group's breakup named their primary personnel for the first time. Their final Barry-produced single was released in early 1971, although "A Summer Prayer for Peace" became a hit in South Africa later that summer. Ron Dante embarked on a short-lived solo career before moving into record production, and found substantial success as Barry Manilow's producer throughout the '70s; he also returned to singing on commercial jingles. Andy Kim went on to score a substantial solo hit in 1974 with "Rock Me Gently."
02 - Boys And Girls
03 - Time For Love
04 - You Make Me Wanne Dance
05 - La Dee Doo Down Down
06 - Truck Driver
07 - Catchin' Up On Fun
08 - I'm In Love
09 - Seventeen Ain't Young
10 - Ride Ride Ride
11 - Hide And Seek
12 - Bang Shang A Lang
******
The Archies, released in 1968, was the group's first album. The music reflected the happiness and innocence of late 60's youth and the Archie comic characters themselves.
The album was released to coincide with the Fall '68 debut of "The Archie Show" on CBS on Saturday mornings. All of the songs on this album were featured on that show. Jeff Barry, who wrote 9 of the 12 songs on this album, was the producer. Barry went on to produce the rest of The Archies albums, with the exception of the last one, This Is Love.
The album did remarkably well, reaching #88 on the Billboard charts, and is probably the second most easy to find album, after Everything's Archie, in used record stores and thrift stores.
Bang-Shang-A-Lang, backed by Truck Driver, was the lone single from the album. The single did exceptionally well on the charts, reaching position #22 on Billboard. It stayed in the Top 40 for 8 weeks, and on the Hot 100 for 13 weeks.
Songs on this album included Archie's Theme (Everything's Archie), Boys and Girls, Time for Love, You Make Me Wanna Dance, La Dee Doo Down Down, Truck Driver, Catchin' Up on Fun, I'm in Love, Seventeen Ain't Young, Ride, Ride, Ride, Hide and Seek and Bang-Shang-A-Lang.
At least 6 of the songs from this album were made available as cardboard cut-out records on the backs of Post Super Sugar Crisp and Post Honeycomb cereal boxes.
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Sunday, July 5, 2009
Bill Haley - Live in Star Club
1 - Shake Rattle And Roll
2 - Skinny Minnie
3 - Rip It Up
4 - Rudys Rock
5 - Lucille
6 - Whole Lotta Shakin Going On
7 - See You Later Alligator
8 - Caravan
9 - Kansas City
10 - What'd I Say
11 - Rock Around The Clock
*****
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